On this day in 1819 the Adams-Onís Treaty was signed by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams for the United States and Luís de Onís for Spain. The treaty renounced the United States claim to Texas....(Read More)

Contribute to TSHA
Today!

TSHA Portal to Texas History Archives

DIETRICH, A. LOUISE

DIETRICH, A. LOUISE (1878–1962). A. Louise Dietrich, nurse administrator, one of eleven children of Valentine and Mary Dietrich, was born on November 17, 1878, in Ossining, New York. She obtained her early education in Ossining and graduated from St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, New York, in 1899. Afterwards she worked as a private nurse in New York. She established residence in El Paso in 1902 and practiced nursing in that area. She worked at Providence Hospital as directress of nurses and then as superintendent of the hospital. In 1903 she established the El Paso Graduate Nurses Association, of which she was first president. For a time she left Texas and in 1907 became superintendent of St. Louis Skin and Cancer Hospital. Several years later she returned to El Paso and opened St. Marks Hospital, where she was superintendent until 1916. Miss Dietrich was chairman of the Red Cross Nursing Service Committee from 1912 to 1915 and during World War I remained active in that organization. In 1920 she was placed in charge of the El Paso Public Health Center. She became the first educational secretary for the Board of Nurse Examiners (seeEXAMINING BOARDS) in 1923. As a strong advocate of better education in nursing, she helped pass the Nurses Compulsory Registration Bill in 1923. She was the first delegate sent from Texas to the American Nurses Association, and from 1928 to 1954 she was general secretary of the Texas Graduate Nurses Association. During World War II she worked to recruit nurses for the armed services. She was a member of St. Albans Episcopal Church in El Paso, the League of Woman Voters of Texasqv, and the Parent-Teachers Association. She never married. She died on January 22, 1962, and is buried in Roselawn Cemetery, El Paso.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

American Journal of Nursing, April 1962. Who's Who of the Womanhood of Texas, Vol. 1 (Fort Worth: Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, 1923–24).